This week a friend challenged me to the core by confessing to “an unwillingness to grant God unlimited permission to do whatever it takes to change me.” That comment led me to re-examine my prayer life. What do I pray for most often? Most prayers are focused on asking God to change things. Yes, there is praise and thanksgiving, but beyond that there is a litany of requests that God intervene and bring change to the circumstances, attitudes and outcomes of the uncontrollable whirl of life that surrounds me.
Buy why don’t I pray fervently, consistently and honestly that God would do whatever He needs to change me at my very core? If I really want to be fully submitted – ‘all-in’ for Christ – do I dare pray for anything less?
When someone gets to us on a painfully personal level we say that they are ‘in our kitchen’. Is it time to invite – grant permission – to the Holy Spirit to mess around with our deepest held fears and attitudes and change us at the most profoundly intimate level of our being? Will we open ourselves up and let God in our kitchen, where truly transformational work can be done? Will we pray for that with all of our heart? Today? Now?